Qantas extends flight suspension until June

Wednesday, May 6, 2020

Qantas Airlines has decided to extend the suspension of its scheduled services further. The cancellation has now been extended at least until the end of June. It was previously decided that the flight suspensions would come to end in somewhere around mid-May. However, as the number of coronavirus cases continued to rise across the globe with no signs of ease on border restrictions, passenger travel demand remained at an all-time low.


The situation forced Qantas to delay their flight suspensions by another six weeks yesterday. International services will have to wait even more to resume their operations. Majority of international services will also not be back until August at the earliest. Alan Joyce, CEO, Qantas Airline said in a statement that the company is expecting the demand recovery to be a gradual process. He said that the total demand will take some more time to reach the pre-crisis levels.


At present, the airline is operating around 5% of its pre-crisis domestic passenger network and 1% of international network, on an available seat kilometre basis. The airline is also utilising 13% of its domestic network and 6% of its international network for FIFO charters for cargo and the resources sector. It is also maintaining a barebones domestic service with the help of some financial support from the Australian Government.


The carrier was also operating several international rescue flight and few subsidised services to some important international ports. Therefore, some international fleets remained active throughout April. On Tuesday the airline said that it had USD$ 2.25 billion in liquid reserves to draw against but it is also presently burning through USD$ 26 million a week. This requires the airline to get back to operational business soon.


Qantas said in an official statement that the period of isolation has taught the airlines the value of seeing people and places. It informed that according to recent survey, it has been found that nearly 85% of the carrier’s frequent flyers are keep to travel once the trying times are over.



The airline also mentioned that they will be careful and try not to the brakes off early. However, the airline is hopeful that restrictions on domestic travel will lift well before international travel. It considers the possibility as a great opportunity for the local tourism industry as more people will begin holidaying in Australia. The airline informed that it would require one week’s notice to get 10% of its fleet flying again and two week’s notice to get 20% of its fleet back in the air.

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